Oscar Piastri’s second-place finish at Suzuka underlined a clear step forward for both the driver and McLaren: it was his first podium and his first championship points of the 2026 season after he leaped into the lead at the start. Piastri, who had missed the opening two rounds with back-to-back DNSs, said McLaren is “closing the gap to Mercedes” and described the reigning team as “beatable.” He also suggested a Safety Car intervention, triggered by Oliver Bearman’s high‑G crash, altered the race’s outcome and said he would have liked to see how the event unfolded without it, adding he felt he had been “pulling away a little bit” before the neutralization.

The Suzuka result followed encouraging pace indicators earlier in the weekend: Piastri topped FP2 by around 0.1 seconds and converted that form into his best qualifying of the season, taking third on the grid — 0.354s off pole and roughly 0.056s behind George Russell — which gave McLaren a second-row start for the first time this year. Team figures framed the weekend as evidence of momentum: Andrea Stella credited closer collaboration with Mercedes HPP engineers and targeted setup work for lap-time gains, while McLaren CEO Zak Brown said the team will win “sooner rather than later.” At the same time Stella and Piastri cautioned that Mercedes still held a clear pace advantage and that a “pretty big gap” remained, highlighting the need to turn flashes of speed into consistent race results.

Reliability and energy-system issues also shaped the narrative of progress versus risk. McLaren dealt with a battery problem that disrupted Lando Norris’s FP3 and cost long-run data, fitted a third energy store during FP3, and Stella flagged recurring issues with the Mercedes-supplied battery module. The Suzuka race itself was heavily influenced by energy-management battles and pit-stop timing, and George Russell lost track position amid power and tire issues. McLaren said it will bring upgrades for the next race aimed at producing more consistent podiums and further developments later in the season intended to contend for wins, with Suzuka offering both a morale boost and a clear reminder of the work still to be done to fully close the gap to Mercedes.

Sources